1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a data storage apparatus of an electronic device, and more particularly to the apparatus of using a memory to expand the data storage capacity of the electronic device as well as enhancing its performance and security.
2. Description of the Related Art
As present existing electronic devices such as personal computer (PC), industrial computer (IPC) include a storage device such as a hard disk in a PC structure as shown in FIG. 1. The prior art includes a main board 90 having a microprocessor 91 and a storage device control interface 92, and the storage device control interface 92 is electrically coupled to one or more hard disks 94 through an electric circuit 93, and the storage device control interface 92 supports transmission protocols including Integrated Device Electronic (IDE), Peripheral Component Interface (PCI) and Serial ATA (SATA). Since the hard disks 94 come with a specific storage capacity, it is necessary to replace the hard disk with another hard disk with a larger storage capacity if a user wants to expand the storage capacity of the hard disk 94, but such expansion always causes a waste of resources, and users have to reinstall the system software and data into the computer, and thus incurring higher cost and more manpower. The user also can add another hard disk 95 for the memory expansion, but such expansion method occupies more spaces and the operation is relatively inconvenient. In the meantime, hard disk is a high precision product, and its operation mainly uses a control circuit to move a pickup hard at a high speed on a system board of the hard disk, and thus the hard disk cannot be vibrated or shaken during its operation. As science and technology advance, hard disks are used extensively in electronic devices of a transportation means such as a motor vehicle or a ship. To overcome the shortcoming of the hard disk, manufacturers use a flash memory in various different storage devices such as Super Density or Secure Digital (SD) card, Compact Flash (CF) card, Memory Stick (MS) card, Multi Media Card (MMC), Smart Card (SM) or USB storage device, and these memory storage devices have become common accessory devices that can be installed, expanded and hot plugged easily, and also come with the advantages of high security, low heat energy, and good performance and vibration resistance. However, the storage capacity of such memory storage devices is very limited, and cannot become a mainstream of storage devices. In a general electronic device (such as a computer), card readers in various different specifications are installed on a panel of the computer, so that these memory storage devices can be used as portable storage media only, but their application cannot be used fully. Therefore, it is an important subject for related manufacturers and engineers to find a way of expanding the storage capacity of a storage device of an electronic device and further enhancing the application of a memory storage device.
In view of the shortcomings of the present existing storage devices with an inconvenient way of expanding their storage capacity, the inventor of the present invention based on years of experience in the related industry to conduct extensive researches and experiments, and finally developed a dynamic, convenient, safe and efficient way of expanding the storage capacity to overcome the shortcomings of the prior art.